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smeared now with the sweat and dirt the AR field had held in, but
Dowland recognized the bold, bony features instantly.
He had finally found Doctor Paul Trelawney.
* * *
It took Dowland over eight minutes to cover the remaining distance between
them. But the stalk had eminently satisfactory results. He was within a yard
of Trelawney before the Freeholder became aware of his presence. The
IPA gun prodded the man's spine an instant later.
"No noise, please," Dowland said softly. "I'd sooner not kill you. I might
have to."
Paul Trelawney was silent for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was raw with
shock. "Who the devil are you?"
"Solar Police Authority," Dowland said. "You know why I'm here."
Trelawney grunted. Dowland went on, "Why are you hiding out?"
"Why do you think?" Trelawney asked irritably. "Before showing myself, I was
trying to determine the whereabouts of the man who fired a rifle within half a
mile of me during the night."
So they had been stalking each other. Dowland said, "Why couldn't that person
have been your brother or niece?"
"Because I know the sound of our rifles."
"My mistake . . . Do you have a gun or other weapon on you?"
"A knife."
"Let's have it."
Trelawney reached under his chest, brought out a sheathed knife and handed it
back to Dowland. Dowland lobbed it into the bushes a few yards away, moved
back a little.
"Get up on your hands and knees now," he said, "and we'll make sure that's
all."
He was careful about the search. Trelawney appeared passive enough at the
moment, but he was not a man too take chances with. The AR suit turned out to
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be concealing a tailored-in two-way communicator along with as many testing
and checking devices as an asteroid miner's outfit, but no weapons. In a
sealed pocket, obviously designed for it, was a five-inch atomic key. Dowland
skid the heavy disk out with fingers that suddenly were shaking a little.
"Does this open your laboratory here?"
"Yes."
Dowland detached the communicator's transmission unit, and dropped it with the
laboratory key into his pocket.
"All right," he said, "turn around and sit down." He waited until Trelawney
was facing him, then went on. "How long have you been watching the ranch?"
"About an hour."
"Seen anyone or anything?"
Trelawney regarded him quizzically, shook his head. "Not a thing."
"I won't waste time with too many questions just now," Dowland said. "The
laboratory is locked, and the machine you started in there apparently is still
in operation. Your brother was found outside the laboratory yesterday morning,
and may be dead or dying of internal radiation burns. He was alive and didn't
seem to be doing too badly when I left him and Miss Trelawney in the house
last night to go looking for you. I had to drug Miss Trelawney
she isn't a very cooperative person. She should still be asleep.
"Now, if I hadn't showed up here just now, what did you intend to do?"
"I intended to stop the machine, of course," Trelawney said. His expression
hadn't changed while Dowland was talking. "Preferably without involving the
Solar Police Authority in our activities. But since you've now involved
yourself, I urgently suggest that we go to the laboratory immediately and take
care of the matter together."
Dowland nodded. "That's what I had in mind, Trelawney. Technically you're
under arrest, of course, and you'll do whatever has to be done in there at gun
point. Are we likely to run into any difficulties in the operation?"
"We very probably will," Trelawney said thoughtfully, "and it's just as
probable that we won't know what they are before we encounter them."
Dowland stood up. "All right," he said, "let's go. We'll stop off at the house
on the way. I want to be sure that Miss
Trelawney isn't in a position to do something thoughtless."
He emptied the magazine of Trelawney's rifle before giving it to him. They
started down to the house, Trelawney in the lead, the IPA gun in Dowland's
hand.
The house door was closed. Trelawney glanced back questioningly. Dowland said
in a low voice, "It isn't locked.
Open it, go on in, and stop two steps inside the hallway. I'll be behind you.
They're both in the living room."
He followed Trelawney in, reaching back to draw the door shut again. There was
a whisper of sound. Dowland half turned, incredulously felt something hard jab
painfully against his backbone. He stood still.
"Drop your gun, Dowland."
Jill Trelawney stood behind him. Her voice was as clear and un-slurred as if
she had been awake for hours. Dowland cursed himself silently. She must have
come around the corner of the house the instant they went in.
"My gun's pointing at your uncle's back," he said. "Don't do anything that
might make me nervous, Miss
Trelawney."
"Don't try to bluff Jill, friend," Paul Trelawney advised him without turning
his head. There was dry amusement in the man's voice. "No one's ever been able
to do it. And she's quite capable of concluding that trading an uncle for an
SPA spy would still leave Terra ahead at this stage. But that shouldn't be
necessary. Jill?"
"Yes, Paul?"
"Give our policeman a moment to collect his wits. . . . This does put him in a
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very embarrassing position, after all.
And I can use his help in the lab."
"I'll give you exactly three seconds, Dowland," Jill said. "And you'd better
believe that is not a bluff. One . . ."
Dowland dropped his gun.
* * *
The two Trelawneys held a brief, whispered conversation in the living room.
Dowland, across the room from them, and under cover of two guns now, couldn't
catch much of it. Jill was in one of the radiation suits he'd brought in from
the storeroom. Miguel was dead. He had still been unconscious when she woke
up, and had stopped breathing minutes afterwards. Medic had done what it
could; in this case it simply hadn't been enough. Jill, however, had found
another use for it. Dowland thought the possibility mightn't have occurred to
anyone else in similar circumstances; but he still should have thought of it
when he left the house. As she began to struggle up from sleep, she remembered
what Dowland had told her about medic, and somehow she had managed to inject a
full ampule of it into her arm. It had brought her completely awake within
minutes.
The murmured talk ended. The girl looked rather white and frightened now. Paul
Trelawney's face was expressionless as he came over to Dowland. Jill shoved
the gun she had put on Dowland into her belt, picked up
Paul's hunting rifle, held it in her hands, and stood waiting.
"Here's the procedure, Dowland," Trelawney said. "Jill will go over to the lab
with us, but stay outside on guard.
She'll watch . . ."
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